By Jeff Brumley
’Tis the season to be … fearful?
It’s not what the lyrics actually say but they may as well given the politically induced hysteria surrounding Muslim immigration and Syrian refugees.
A lot of churches and evangelical leaders are pumping panic-stricken messages from their pulpits, too, say a growing list of Christian writers and ministers concerned about the nation’s anti-Muslim mood.
In blogs, columns and interviews with Baptist News Global, they say it appears as though the Advent season has been usurped by presidential election season.
“The essential thing that’s wrong with that is that it’s inconsistent with scripture and with our witness and everything we are about,” said Mark Tidsworth, a Baptist minister who coaches pastors and congregations as president of Pinnacle Leadership Associates in South Carolina.
Six months ago, Tidsworth penned a blog on his ministry website. Titled, “The Fear Contagion Goes to Church,” the article warned pastors and church leaders that unchecked fear about cultural and political issues can dominate congregations.
Tidsworth said the July 29 piece was motivated by what he had seen, heard and read already from the 2016 presidential season. It was clear even then that many Christians were buying into the scary projections offered by some of the candidates.
“I did not intend to be that prophetic — and I wish I wasn’t,” Tidsworth told BNG on Monday, weeks after Donald Trump promised to ban Muslims from entering the United States and several governors sought to ban Syrian refugees from their states.
Elections are constructed so that candidates must vie for attention, he said. And one of the quickest ways to get that attention is to use fear of something or someone.
“Fear is a great attention grabber,” he said.
Thanks in part to the rise of ISIS and the recent terror attacks in Paris and California, fear has escalated to the point where religious leaders and their followers are being consumed by it. Some, like Jerry Falwell Jr. have encouraged Christians to stock up on weapons.
Tidsworth said such rhetoric occurs when congregations experience emotional contagion.
“Emotional contagion is where emotions and moods tend to spread through communities,” he said. Sometimes those emotions can be positive, such as joy and compassion.
But fear moves the fastest through groups, he said.
“It can spread … faster than some pleasant emotions because fear is an alert status.”
‘Don’t settle into anger’
Kevin Glenn has seen that himself, and all too clearly.
In early August, Glenn’s Calvary Baptist Church was one of three Las Cruces, N.M. congregations targeted with explosives. The bombs at his and a nearby Catholic parish actually exploded, causing damage but no injuries.
Fear immediately gripped the community, and even some in state government expressed their fears through vindictive comments about the perpetrators, who remain at-large.
But Glenn said he did not want that kind of reaction to permeate his congregation.
“Initially, there was a lot of fear around the fact that it was unexpected, that the motive was unknown and the perpetrator was unknown,” he said. “That did have people fearful.”
But Glenn said he coached his clergy and lay leaders always to appear and speak calmly and only to share information about the attack that had been provided by authorities.
“Whatever the anxiety level of the person, we were to be deliberate in having our anxiety level lower,” Glenn said. “That seems to bring their anxiety level down.”
That meant no speculating about what happened — or what might happen.
“The speculation can get out of hand,” he said.
None of this was meant to deny the gravity of the situation, he added. Clearly they had been attacked and new security measures had to be taken.
In that way, fear can be a healthy motivator. But Calvary Baptist has avoided taking the unhealthy next step of condemning the attackers or guessing what could happen next.
“Our catch phrase is we want to be vigilant in watchfulness and faithful in our witness,” he said.
Glenn said he understands how congregations can become fearful — like much of the culture does — after terror attacks. It’s even harder to avoid when those events are used by politicians to pander for votes.
“What we went through is a microcosm of the Trump stuff,” Glenn said, referring to the presidential candidate’s call for banning Muslims from entering the United States.
But Christians need not sacrifice compassion for security because they can have both, he added.
“Anger can motivate you to action, but the scripture says don’t settle into anger.”
‘That message of hope’
Another writer said it’s not enough not to fall into fearful ways of thinking.
In fact, R. Kevin Johnson said, Christians are obligated to be living models of hope and compassion when the rest of society is consumed with fear.
“Christians are called to a better way of living out these days of turmoil, to a better way of service to others,” Johnson, a Baptist minister and chaplain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, wrote in a Dec. 18 BNG Perspective piece.
On Monday, he told BNG that can be done by smiling at and greeting Muslims on the street — because they are definitely feeling the stares and ill-will coming at them from every corner.
“Treat everyone with respect and dignity because most of the time our fears are unfounded,” Johnson said. “We are not called to a spirit of fear.”
And those Christians who say they are more concerned about winning souls to Christ should see the anti-Muslim fervor in the nation as an opportunity to demonstrate what Christ’s love is really like, Johnson said.
“Christians are missing out on a fabulous opportunity to show the grace of God … and the nature of Christ,” he said.
Besides, the Bible is full of passages warning God’s people against being fearful, Tidsworth said.
In Christ’s birth narrative, he said, the angels assure there is no need for fear.
“Paul says God has not given us a spirit of fear,” Tidsworth said.
“God has helped people move through these kinds of things for centuries.”
And the Christmas season is an ideal time for the church to remind the rest of the nation about that fact, adding, “This is a wonderful time for Christ’s followers to provide some leadership and share that message of hope.”